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francois2605

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Posts posted by francois2605

  1. 14 hours ago, Swords said:

    Just curious how many people on this forum think they need to read more books???

     

    I think I should read more. I bought tons of books but barely read them: I start full of optimism but rarely make it to the end (it takes a serious commitment on the medium term which isn't compatible with the way I operate).

     

    Multiple reasons for that:

    * When I have free time (in the evening) after a work day, I'm usually too tired to read something as technical as a nihonto book

    * English isn't my native english which only makes the learning more difficult

    * Reading a nihonto book is usually at the bottom of my todo list

    * My brain is wired to remember reasonings / logical facts and connect them with things I already know (I remember the logic and derive facts from it). That's how I accumulate knowledge. It's very challenging for someone like me to accumulate knowledge in the field of nihonto: all I read seems to be "random" facts disconnected from what I read previously, I have a very hard time remembering things related to nihonto because I fail to draw any logical connection between facts A and B. As a consequence, reading is not the problem, the problem is remembering what you read and accumulating knowledge over time. 

     

     

     

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  2. 9 hours ago, Larason2 said:

    There are a lot of different words for "new" Japanese swords, and they mean different things to different people. Gendaito, shinshinto, and shinsakuto are just some of them. You also hear Showa a lot, but less so Heisei or Reiwa.

     

    AFAIK the ambiguity is only about gendaitō / shinsakutō which can mean different things for different people. As per Markus Sesko:

     

    Quote

    gendait(現代刀) – Lit. “modern sword.” Traditionally, the term gendaitis applied to swords made in the traditional way from after the end of the shinshintera, which is marked by haitrei issued in 1876, to the of WWII. When sword production resumed in 1953, i.e. after the ban on sword production issued by the allied forces, a new term was introduced for the newly made swords, namely shinsakut(新作刀). However, shinsakutmeans as indicated “newly made sword” and as this distinction took place more than half a century ago, there is the tendency among experts and collectors to “extend” the term gendaitand apply it also to swords made in more or less the decades after WWII. But following the latter approach, no exact definition has yet been made to tell until when the term gendaitapplies and when the term shinsakutshould be used.

     

    There should be zero ambiguity about shinshintō:

     

    Quote

    shinshint(新々刀) – Lit. “new new sword” or “very new sword.” Term to refer to sword made between the shintand the haitrei, which is from around An ́ei (安永, 1772-1781) to 1876. The start of the shinshintera is usually equated with the fukkotō movement (復古刀), the revival of old kot-era forging traditions, initiated by Suishinshi Masahide (水心子正秀). Masahide was namely not satisfied with the then status quo of the sword world, i.e. to remain stuck to the Ōsaka-shintō and the danger of falling into oblivion of the kotō-era forging techniques. He tried more or less single- handedly to rediscover and revive the old forging techniques of the Heian and Kamakura period and this new focus on the art of sword forging after a period of qualitative and quantitative decline was so epoch-making that the term shinshintwas introduced.

     

    or Showa, Heisei and Reiwa which are nengō era names.

     

    Note: Showa should not be confused with Showatō which denotes non-traditionally made swords.

     

    Finally, shinsakutō:

     

    Quote

    shinsakut(新作刀) – Lit. “newly made sword.” When sword production resumed in 1953, i.e. after the ban on sword production issued by the allied forces, a new term was introduced for the newly made swords, namely shinsakut, to distinguish them from the gendaitswords made from after the haitrei until WWII. However, shinsakutmeans as indicated “newly made sword” and as this distinction took place more than half a century ago, there is the tendency among experts and collectors to “extend” the term gendaitand apply it also to swords made in more or less the decades after WWII. But following the latter approach, no exact definition has yet been made to tell until when the term gendaitapplies and when the term shinsakutshould be used. Incidentally, there is also another approach to distinguish between gendaitand shinsakut, namely in the way that as long as a contemporary smith is alive, his works are referred to as shinsakutbut after his death they “become” gendait.

     

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